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I think i understand your initial question. Although i must say that i agree with Crunchy Cat that evil doesn't really exist. It an attempt to describe a part of human nature. Instead of the words "good/evil" i'd rather use egoistic and altruistic or something similar. I don't think anyone is purely egoistic or purely altruistic but i think we all possess degrees of both. I really think that is one of the defining qualities of the human race. I know that certain other fairly intelligent animals are showing signs of being altruistic but probably not as much as humans.
So to answer your initial question: "Evil" is something ancient that has been part of the human race since before we could even walk on two feet(maybe even before we could walk on four). "Good" is something that has evolved later as we became more intelligent and it is part why we are so relatively successful as a race.

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Instead of the words "good/evil" i'd rather use egoistic and altruistic or something similar. I don't think anyone is purely egoistic or purely altruistic but i think we all possess degrees of both

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well, there you go, just using different terminology or better defined.

it's like bad to evil to describe degrees.

what are we going to do next? say that happy or sad does not exist either?

"Good" is something that has evolved later as we became more intelligent and it is part why we are so relatively successful as a race.

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doesn't even make sense. what does good have to do with a success of a species? nothing. if you are defining survival skills or intelligence as 'good', then that would make sense.

as far as altruism, i don't see that in humans anymore than animals. some humans are extraordinarily altruistic but the majority are not. it's just humans are more aware of how to manipulate their environment.

well I don't think you are born evil . You learn behavior by example is what I believe . Lots of evil examples to learn from . Your young ones are learning them from you right now . Look at them copying your every move up until they learn they can get what they want by copying someone else learning there evil that is better than yours. Faster results than old mommy and daddy old tired evil. Get the getting while the gettings to be getting. The evil way. Cheat the contractor . Everybody learns that by the time they are 5

well I don't think you are born evil . You learn behavior by example is what I believe . Lots of evil examples to learn from . Your young ones are learning them from you right now . Look at them copying your every move up until they learn they can get what they want by copying someone else learning there evil that is better than yours. Faster results than old mommy and daddy old tired evil. Get the getting while the gettings to be getting. The evil way. Cheat the contractor . Everybody learns that by the time they are 5

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no one is born as an empty slate. we are born with a set of genes that determine our basic makeup. environment can play a part but sometimes, genes are stronger.

i think there can be people born who with a tendency to be evil or atrociously selfish. it's how that is managed though.

you can even see it in young children and the differences in temperament and easily identify the bullies from the ones who aren't.

I don't think anyone is "evil" for the sake of being evil. But i do think that people are being selfish a lot of the time.

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Na I think you are wrong about that . Like the guy that slit the throats of his 3 daughters in California and left them to bleed to death . One of the girls lived "surprise daddy" . He seem pretty evil to Me, or the guy that abducted a woman out of the parking lot of a mall, chop of her forearms and disposed of them so if someone found the body they could not identify her by her finger prints . He threw her down a 600 ft. canyon thinking she would bleed to death and die . She lived and crawled out of the canyon, identified him and his evil butt all ready got out because she lived and it was not murder . How about Charles Ing and David Lake the 2 guys that tortured 23 womenor more in there secret dungeon until they killed them then took there bodies out to the yard and buried them . I would call that evil my self . A little bit more than just being selfish if you ask Me

I think babies are born "evil" and that "good" behavior is mostly something that they learn from their parents and schools and what not.

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You see this is why people have problems with there children . It is a direct result of thinking there children are evil to start with . Now I admit they do pick up on the idea that I can get what I want by being evil bashing your head and just taking from you , but that is in it self learned behavior if you ask Me. Baron Chapman learned it well from his older brothers and practiced what his hard ass brothers taught him on a daily bases as he was growing up . If he had only had altruistic brothers things might have been different , but to think he came out the shoot evil to begin with ? I don't know about that ?

Not evil by your definition, but selfish. I think that babies on their own will develop altruistic behavior later, when their brains develop, but not as much as if they're taught to "respect other people" and "be nice to old ladies" and such.

I'm sure those people had some sort of mental illness. Maybe evil is an illness then by your definition?

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No the guy that slit his children throat was in a jealous rage. Killed his wife's parents then went to her work killed her and several of her co-workers and did this all after he slit his children throats . Then he split for his home land in Mexico were it took a long time to extradite him back to the states. Charles Ing was a Vietnamese man that made it to the states when the war ended and his partner was a Vietnam Vet . We all got the feeling they did the same thing while at war in Vietnam and they derived so much pleasure from the dastardly deed they continued the practice when they came to the states . The other guy was a rapist trying to cover his tracks . I guess you could call it all extreme cases of selfishness, but I think they were rather evil my self

Not evil by your definition, but selfish. I think that babies on their own will develop altruistic behavior later, when their brains develop, but not as much as if they're taught to "respect other people" and "be nice to old ladies" and such.

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Children learn by example . Peoples children sad to say are a refection of there parents plain and simple . They learn the evil of there parents . It is the curse the parents put on there children . I don't know why no one knows this. It is not a big mystery. They believe what you tell them when they are very young . The children take it to heart . Every thing you tell them while they are still gullible . Those things they learn become the root of self . The you in you you revert back to in a stressful situation . The word only a father or mother can say that sends you over the edge good or bad.

We can agree to disagree then. Selfishness is part of our animal nature imo.

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O.K. then . I raised 9 children though and several of them are gifted . I know exactly why the ones that are are and my words about children are worthy of consideration . I have changed other peoples children with just a few words of encouragement too . Children want respect just as much as anybody does and if they get it while thy are young it sticks to them like glue

Are people naturally evil?
I need any information or sources that help to prove people are naturally evil. Both religous and non-religous are desired. (any religion, preferably many religions)

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Simply, evils & goods(negatives & positives, angels & devils) are balancing mechanism to each other for the purpose to keep nature in balance. As such, we can safely think both are valid if nature is not in balance. God can be the mediator to the balance of nature by creation, maintainance & destruction. It is said, excess of everything is bad/odd--on either side whether of positive s or of nagatives BUT only balance is right which is Godlike. Moving towards such balance is good whereas towards imbalance on either side a SIN.

this is the same type of logic as saying people don't exist. after all, they are just a mass of atoms.

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It's a false comparison. I can produce an instance of a person. Nobody can produce an instance of evil. What's it made up of? How do you measure it? Where is it exactly? See what I mean? It's not an objective entity... it doesn't exist outside the mind of a person who has created their own notion of evil.

If you are using the objective definition of meaning then this is a false statement. Meaning is the relationship of two or more variables. The only way to have an absence of meaning is to put a single variable out on its own with an absence of everything and anything around it.

If you are using the subjective definition of meaning then it's irrelevant because importance doesn't objectively exist.